Nutrition of Range Goats in a Shrubland of Western India
RaghavendraBhatta*, A. K. Shinde,S. K.Sankhyan and D. L.Verma Division of AnimalNutrition, Central Sheep and WoolResearch Institute
Avikanagar 304501, Rajasthan, India
* Corresponding Author: Raghavendra Bhatta. Fax: +91-1437
28163, E-mail: rbhatta@cswri.rai.nic.in
Received December 24, 2001; Accepted July 31,2002
ABSTRACT:An investigation was made to evaluate the native range of western India in terms of nutrient supply during different physiological stages in goats. One hundred female and 5 male Kutchi adult goats were grazed on a 35 ha plot of native range. They were maintained on sole grazing. Four experiments, one in a defined physiological stage was carried out. Stage I, when maximum number of females were bred; stage II, when bucks were used for breeding purpose; stage III, 3-months old (weaner) kids were allowed to graze on ranges and stage IV, when the goats were in early stage of lactation. During oestrous period, diet contained 15.2% crude protein (CP), 54.0% neutral detergent fibre (NDF), 31.5% acid detergent fibre (ADF) and 12.6% acid detergent lignin (ADL). Digestibility coefficient of dry matter (DM), CP, NDF and ADF was 0.586,0.531, 0.431 and 0.239, respectively. DM, digestible crude protein (DCP) and metabolizable energy (ME) intakes were 82.7, 6.71 g kg-1 W0.75 and 0.99 MJ kg-1 W0.75. Diet of buck was constituted by 230 g kg-1 DM of grasses and forb and 770 g kg-1 DM of tree foliage. CP, NDF, ADF and ADL contents of the diet were 13.6, 57.8, 43.5 and 20.0%, respectively. DM, DCP and ME intakes were 57.9, 4.13 g kg-1 W0.75 and 0.82 MJ kg-1 W0.75. Digestibility coefficient of CP, NDF and ADF were 0.496, 0.432 and 0.346, respectively. Diet of kids was constituted by Prosopis cineraria (900 g kg-1DM) and Zizyphus nummularia (l00 g kg-1DM) leaves. Digestibility of CP, NDF and ADF were 0.456, 0.415 and 0.201, respectively. DM, DCP and ME intakes were 85.8, 6.44 g kg-1W0.75 and 1.22 MJ kg-1 W0.75. Lactation phase of goat fell between October-December and tree foliage formed the major portion of the diet. Diet of lactating goat contained only 6.8% CP and 16.5% ADL. Digestibility of DM, CP, NDF and ADF was 0.567, 0.221, 0.307 and 0.233, respectively. DM, DCP and ME intakes were 108.2, 1.62 g kg-1W0.75 and 1.50 MJ kg-1W0.75, respectively. Present study establishes that goats on semiarid range with sufficient number of fodder trees were able to meet the nutrient requirement of ewes during oestrous and bucks during breeding season. However, during lactation and active growth phase, only DM requirement is met. Thus, it is recommended to supplement concentrate mixture to goats grazing on range during lactation and growth phase. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim Sci. 2002. Vol 15, No. 12 :1719-1724)
Key Words : Goats, Rangeland, Nutrition
INTRODUCTION
Western region of India is very important for goat production. Goats in this regionare primarily dependent on native range for their forage requirement. Browse species foundin ranges constitute major portionof food for goats, especially during non-growing season, when it provides essentialprotein, asgrassis dormant. It has been found that constant high grazing pressure and overgrazing are the majorconstraints for sustainablegoat production onranges in semiarid region. Seasonal changes in the quality and quantity of forage from range often lead to nutritional inadequacy to animals in late winter and summer. In the present study, native range routinely grazedbythe goats in a round the year management was evaluated in terms of forage supply, intake and animal performance so as to developsuitable strategies of supplementationif required to optimizetheproduction.
MATERIALAND METHODS
Rangeland
The study was conducted at Central Sheep and Wool
ResearchInstitute,Avikanagar, locatedat75°28'N latitude, 26° 17'E longitude and 320 m above mean sea level. The climate is hot semiarid with mean minimum and maximum temperature of 8°Cand41.5°C respectively. Rainfall inthe region islow, erratic and highly inconsistent. During 1999
2000, precipitation was very erratic with 97% of 581 mm (annual rainfall) being received during July to October months, and the remaining 3% in the form of short shower.
Native range at the experimental station is occupied by a heterogeneous vegetation type of shrubs with an annual herbaceous under-storey. Prosopis cineraria and Zizyphus nummularia were the dominant shrub species and their leaves and fruit/podsoffer potentialsource of foliageduring winter and summer. The under-storey is occupied by Melilotus indica, Tribulus terrestris, Crotolaria burhia, Celosia argentea and Indigofera cordifolia grasses and forb species.
Anim 이 s
One hundred female and 5 male Kutchi adult goatswere grazed on 35 ha plot of native range. Theywere maintained ongrazing alone, no supplementationwasprovided, except for the lopped foliagefrom the shrub. Kids born from these goats were also allowed for grazing onthe same range plot after 3 months of age.
Experimentalprocedure
Animal experimentation : Four experiments, one in a definedphysiologicalstage,were carried out. Stage I, when maximum number of females was bred. The stage fell betweenJune-July and was the main growing season with rainfall and hot humid condition. In stage II, bucks were used for breeding. Ambient conditions and forage supply fromrange was almost similar to thatof the oestrus stage.
Stage III, whenkids were 3 months oldand allowed for nibbling on ranges. The period fell between March-April and ground vegetation was almost negligible. Bushes and shrubs were the main source of vegetation and constitute the major portion of the diet. Stage IV, when thegoatswere inthe early stage oflactation (15-45 dayspostkidding) and forage supply from land deterioratedcompletely andshrub andbushes form the integralcomponent of thediet.
Digestibility trials
In each stage 6 animals were used to collect representative samples of forage and faeces for estimation of forage intake and nutrient digestibility. Diet samples were collected daily from each animalby snatching 40-50 bites from the mouth before swallowing (Sankhyan et al., 1999). The samples were collected throughout the grazing hours to avoiddiurnalvariation in diet selection. Eachgoat was dosed with 1 g chromicoxide in a paper capsule twice dailyfor10 days at 08:00 and17:00 h and atthe sametime faeces were sampled from the rectum for the last 5 consecutive days. Diet and faeces samples of individual animalsweredriedseparately at 60°C. Individual adult goat was weighed using a spring balance in the morninghours, at fortnightly interval throughout the year. Kids were weighed atbirth, 3 and 6months of age. Milk yield of goat wasrecorded at weekly intervalup to 150 days oflactation period.
Dietsampling
The total number of plants of shrub species present in the grazing area wascounted and yield of individualspecies inthe paddockwas estimated. Six randomquadrates (1 m2) were clipped close to ground level at uniform height, to determine the quantity of available forage (Papanastasis, 1977). Percentage distribution of individualspecies on DM basis in grazing area(Holecheck etal., 1982) and chemical composition of foragewasalsodetermined.
Chemical analysis
Forage, diet and faeces samples were ground to pass through a 1mm sieve in a Wiley mill and stored in polythene bags for further analysis. Nitrogen was determined by the Kjeldahl method (AOAC, 1984). NDF, ADF and lignin were determined by the method of Van Soest et al. (1991). Nutrientdigestibility was estimated by
lignin ratio technique (Wallace and Van Dyne, 1970).
Metabolizable energy (ME)intake was calculated as MEI =OMI gx 19x0.82 (ARC, 1980)
The chemical composition of the milk was analysed at monthly intervals for milk fat, protein, lactose, solid-not-fat (SNF) and totalsolids (TS) using standard techniques.
Statisticalanalysis
Since the objective of the study was to determine the nutrient intake during different physiological stages, only the mean values are presented. The data pertaining to differentstagesarenot compared.
RESULTS
Nutrient content of vegetation
Chemical composition of native herbaceous plant species found in the semiarid range is shown in Table 1.
Vigna sinensis contained >20% CP, Tephrosia purpurea, Melilotus indica, Gymnosporaspinosa, Phaseolus trilobus, Ceropeagia bulbosa contained >15% CP. Dactyloctenium aegypticum, Tribulus terrestris, Ericostema species, Sesamum indicum, Commelina forskalaei, Celosia Argentea, Trianthema portolocastrum contained >10% CP and Sorghum helepense and Crotolaria burhia >5% CP. Fibre content ofthese forage species (cellulose, ADF and lignin) are withinnormalrange of a good quality vegetation. ADL wasbelow 11.0% and ADF 43.0% inalmost allthe species exceptinTrianthema portolocastrum whereADFwas49%, cellulose 38.5% and ADL10.6%.
Oestrus stage
Maximumnumberof goats in this part of India isbred in the month of May-July. The vegetation available to animalfromrangeduringthis period besides tree foliage is shown inTable 2. Goat diet was constituted by 329 gkg-1 DMof Prosopis cineraria leaves, 357 g kg -1DMof pods,
181 g kg -1DMof Acacia senegal leaves. Native species of Vigna sinensis, Commelina forskalaei, Trianthema portolocastrum constituted 133.3 g kg-1DM of diet.
Goat diet during oestrus contained 15.2% CP, 54.0%
NDF, 31.5% ADF and 12.6% ADL (Table 3). Higher proportion of CP in the diet of goat was associated with consumption of tree pods, as pods contain higher CP than leaves. DMintakeof goatduringoestruswas 1,224 g day-1, DCP intake was 98.9 g day-1 and ME intake was 17.6 MJ day-1 (Table 4). DM intakewas 3.3% of bodyweight, which was adequate to meet the requirement of animals, as the quality ofdiet was better. Digestibility coefficient of DM, CP, NDF and ADF was 0.586, 0.531, 0.431 and 0.239 in goats during oestrus period. Reproductive efficiency in
Table 1. Chemical composition of herbaceous plant species in native ranges of semiarid region
DM CP NDF ADF Cellulose Hemi
cellulose ADL
Dactyloctenium aegyptium 49.21 12.13 41.87 29.43 14.60 12.40 5.80
Tribulus terrestris 36.08 13.13 44.40 33.70 21.70 10.70 11.10
Tephrosia purpurea 58.53 17.32 54.20 39.10 20.20 15.10 5.40
Enicostema sp. 32.62 13.13 55.40 39.50 30.50 15.90 7.80
Sesamum indicum 39.93 11.38 69.40 32.90 22.30 36.50 4.10
Melilotus indica 49.88 19.70 45.85 33.26 28.20 12.59 5.90
Indigofera cordifolia 54.22 14.52 31.90 22.90 14.50 9.00 5.10
Commelina forskalaei 32.26 12.25 45.90 34.60 27.50 11.30 6.80
Celosia argentea 35.79 12.25 41.50 27.50 19.30 14.00 6.60
Gymnosporia spinosa 29.91 17.50 41.30 27.60 23.30 13.70 7.70
Phaseolus trilobus 37.82 16.10 42.36 30.28 19.30 12.08 10.60
Trianthema portolocastrum 27.85 11.37 58.60 49.00 38.50 9.60 10.60
Vigna sinensis 22.68 23.45 68.50 43.00 36.20 25.50 6.50
Sorghum helepense 24.56 6.13 41.20 29.10 20.30 12.10 5.50
Cocculus pendulus 41.11 10.85 44.50 33.90 22.50 10.60 6.80
Crotolaria burhia 43.92 5.25 33.90 23.60 12.50 10.30 2.40
Ceropeagia bulbosa 25.48 15.75 51.60 37.80 30.40 13.80 7.40
Table 2. Botanical composition of the diet of goats (g kg-1 DM) during different stages
Grasses and forbs Oestrus Bucks Kid Lactation
Achyranthus aspera - 39.4 - -
Crotolaria burhia - 13.1 - -
Phaseolus trilobus - 32.8 - -
Melilotus indica - 26.2 - -
Sorghum helepense - 118.4 - -
Eriochloa polystachya 38.6 - - -
Ceropeagia bulbosa 29.9 - - -
Commelina forsklaei 36.7 - - -
Trianthema portolocastrum 28.1 - - -
Cenchrus catherticus - - - -
Acacia senegal 181.0 135.2 - -
Acacia tortolis - 40.5 - -
Azardirachta indica - 9.3 - 286.8
Bauhinia recemosa - 20.9 - 253.3
Cocculuc pendulus - 83.1 - -
Dicrostachys nutans - 76.1 - -
Gymnosporia spinosa - 109.1 - -
Prosopis cineraria (leaves) 328.8 206.6 900.0 255.7 Zizyphus nummularia - 88.3 100.0 204.0
Prosopis cineraria (pods) 356.8 - - -
Table 3. Chemical composition of goat diet (% DM) during different stages
Oestrus Buck Kid Lactation
Dry matter 36.5 48.0 48.8 72.3
CP 15.2 13.6 16.5 6.8
NDF 54.0 57.8 55.2 41.2
ADF 31.5 43.5 34.9 30.0
Cellulose 17.5 22.5 14.0 13.6
Hemicellulose 22.5 14.6 20.3 11.3
ADL 12.6 20.0 19.8 16.5
terms of number of animalsbredwas98%(Table 6). Out of this73% of goatsgave singlekid, 25% gavetwins and1%
Table 4. Nutrient intake by goats on native range of semiarid region during different stages
Oestrus Buck Kid Lactation
Nutrient intake
DMI (g/day) 1,224±94.0 1,214±35.9 691±28.5 1,585±19.1 DMI (g/kg BW) 33.7±2.89 32.5±1.65 42.78±1.91 43.6±5.6 DCPI (g/kg W0.75) 82.7±6.86 57.9±3.1 85.76±3.68 108.2±13.5 DCPI (g/day) 98.9±8.91 84.6±8.71 51.91±1.89 23.5±4.60 DCPI (g/kg BW) 2.74±0.28 2.54±0.26 3.21±0.11 0.67±0.14 DMI (g/kg W0.75) 6.71±0.65 4.13±0.52 6.44±0.22 1.62±0.34 MEI (MJ/day) 17.6±1.38 16.7±0.84 9.83±0.41 22.1±2.70 MEI (MJ/kg BW) 0.49±0.04 0.45±0.03 0.61±0.03 0.60±0.08 MEI (MJ/kg W075) 0.99±0.09 0.82±0.04 1.22±0.05 1.50±0.19 Digestibility of nutrients
Dry matter 58.6±2.44 55.8±3.65 51.98±0.33 56.7±0.60 CP 53.1±1.37 49.6±3.73 45.59±0.60 22.1±3.70 NDF 43.1±3.20 43.2±5.90 41.48±0.72 30.7±0.80 ADF 23.9±2.30 34.6±5.29 20.11±1.54 23.3±4.20 Cellulose 54.9±1.68 54.9±3.91 55.97±2.34 55.0±2.30 Hemicellulose 56.2±1.73 57.0±6.89 58.42±1.58 59.8±4.60
gave triplet. Kidding rate was 121 during aperiod of one year.
Bucks
Male goats (bucks) were maintained with females on range throughout the year. Breeding season of goatin this region fell somewhere between May-July. Bucks are used forbreeding in this season. Thus, thelevel of nutrition was assessed to suggest any supplementation to improve reproductive efficiency. Diet of buck was constituted by 230 g kg-1 DM grasses and forb and 770 g kg-1 DM tree foliage. Predominant grasses inthe diet were Achyranthus aspera 39.4, Phaseolus trilobus 32.8 and Sorghum helepense 118.4 g kg-1DM. Acacia senegal, Gymnospora
Table 5. Growth performance of kids on native ranges
Item Male Female
Birth weight (kg) 3.42±0.10 3.25±0.08 Weaning weight (kg) 10.51±0.35 10.47±0.40 Six month weight (kg) 15.03±0.46 14.00±0.58
Daily gain (0-3 m) (g) 79 80
Daily gain (3-6 m) (g) 50 39
Table 6. Reproductive efficiency of goat on native ranges
Item Values
Tupping per cent 98
Does kidded
Single 73
Twin 25
Triplet 1
Breeding efficiency 123
Kidding percent 97
Kidding rate (litter size) 121
Table 7. Milk yield and composition of lactating goats
Item Values
Milk yield (kg)
90 days 57.51±1.39
150 days 81.51±2.20
Daily milk yield (g) 543.00
Milk composition (%)
Fat 4.5±0.2
Protein 3.0±0.1
Lactose 3.8±0.1
SNF 7.8±0.1
Total solids 12.4±0.2
spinosa and Prosopis cineraria constituted 135, 109, and 207 gkg-1DM ofdiet (Table 2). Highercontent ofbrowse species in the diet contributed to 13.6% CP and 20.0%
lignin (Table 3). NDF, ADF and cellulose content of diet were 57.86, 43.46 and 22.46%. DM intake of buck was 1,214 g day-' or 32.5 gkg-1BW.DCPintakewas 84.6 g day」or 2.54 g kg-1 BW (Table 4). ME intakewas 16.7 MJ day」or 0.45 MJ kg-1 BW. Digestibility coefficient of CP was 0.496, NDF 0.432, ADF 0.346 and cellulose 0.549.
Average body weight of animal was 55.0 kg, which was maintained throughout the year, except for aslight decline insummerwith deteriorationof forage supply from range.
Kids
Kidswere born in October-November and after weaning at 3 months of age, were sent fornibbling in the ranges.
Most of the native vegetation sprouted in monsoon season was in the withering stage and majorvegetation cover is constitutedbybushes, shrubs and treefoliage. Diet of kids wasconstitutedby Prosopis cineraria(900g kg-1 DM) and Zizyphus nummularia leaves (100 g kg-1 DM) in Table 2.
Greater proportion of leaves along with twig in kid diet contributed for higherCP andlignin content of 16.5% and
19.9% (Table 3).NDF and ADFcontent of diet were 55.20 and34.90%. DM intake of kidswas 691 g day-1 or4.3% of BW, DCPintakewas 51.9 g day-1 or 3.2 % of BW(Table 4).
ME intakewas 9.8 MJday-1 or0.61% ofBW. Digestibility coefficient of DM, CP, ADF and NDF was 0.519, 0.456, 0.201 and 0.415. Growthperformances of kids areshown in Table5. Birthweight of male and femalekidswas 3.42 and 3.25 kg. Weaning (3 month) and 6 month weight in male and female was 10.51, 15.03 and 10.47, 14.00 kg respectively. Average daily gain in both the sexesbetween 0-3 and 3-6 month of agewas80 and 45 grespectively.
Lactating goats
Lactation phase of goats on ranges fell between October-December. During this phase goat diet was constituted by 287 g kg-1 DM Azardirachta indica, 253 g kg-1 DM Bauhinia racemosa, 256 g kg-1 DM of Prosopis cineraria and 204 g kg-1 DM of Zizyphus nummularia (Table 2). Diet of goatcontained 6.8%CPand 16.5% lignin (Table 3). Higher proportion of lignin and lower proportion of protein in lactating goats was due to consumptionof twig, as twig containslessprotein and more lignin than leaves. NDF and ADFcontentofgoat diet were 41.2and 30.0% respectively. Dry matter intake of goat was 1,585 g day」or 4.4 %ofBW (Table4). Higherintakewas associated withhigherdemand for lactation. Low intake of CP andpoordigestibility of diet resulted inpoor intake of DCP and itwas 23.5 g day-l or 0.67 g kg-1 BW.ME intake was 22.1 MJ day-l or 0.60 MJ kg-1 BW. Digestibility of proteinwas severely depressedto 0.221 because of greater proportionof twig and presence of tannin in the diet. Milk yield of goat in90 and 150 daysof lactation was 57.5 and 81.5 kg, respectively. Daily milk yieldof goat was 639 g during 0-90 days post kidding. Fat, protein, lactose, solid- not-fat(SNF) andtotal solids (TS) content of milk were 4.5, 3.0, 3.8,7.8and 12.4 per cent, respectively.
DISCUSSION
Native ranges in semiarid region are occupied by various species of grasses, forb and shrubs. These plant species sprout during June-July with the onset of first monsoon shower, remain green up to August-September, then witheroffwith the onsetof winter. Short life cycle of these speciesoftenimpose restriction onforageavailability to grazing goats during late winter and summer. Although these species are rich in crude protein and energy content (Table 1), because of their availability for a short period renders the goatsto lowplane of nutrition for most part of the year. Rehabilitation of these native ranges by perennial grasses, legumes and tree fodder could extend the availability of forage forlongerperiod.
Goats maintainedon these ranges pass throughdifferent
stages like growth, lactation and breeding. The nutrient requirement of goats duringthese stages varies widely and is affected to a great extentby the forage supply from the range.
Oestrousstage
Goats grazing on ranges remain under low level of nutrition during summer months because of poor availability of vegetation. The first monsoonshowers drops the ambient temperature considerably with simultaneous sprouting of ground vegetation. At the same time, pods of Prosopis cineraria, Acacianilotica and Acacia tortolis are alsoavailable to thegoats.Thesepodsareveryrich in crude protein(12-15%) and energy. All these conditions flushthe goats and inducetheminto oestrous. Sankhyanet al. (2001) also reported that pods consumption induces oestrous in grazinggoats. Average DM, DCP andME intakes of goats were 82.7, 6.71 g kg-1 W0'75and 0.99 MJ kg-1 W0'75. Protein and energy intakes of these goats were well above the requirements (Kearl, 1982). Thus, goats on these ranges did not requireany supplementationduringoestrousperiod.
Bucks
Breeding bucks were maintained with the females throughouttheyear.It has beensuggested thatbucks should be provided with extraallowances during breeding season (Ranjhan, 1980). Nutrition of these bucks was evaluated to ascertain whether supplementation is required ornot. DM, DCP and ME intakes of breeding bucks were 57.9, 4.13 g kg-1 W0J5and 0.82 MJ kg-1 W0'5. Ranjhan (1980) has recommended 85.0 g DCP and 15.4 MJ ME as the requirement for breeding bucks. Nutrient intake ofbucks wasoptimumas per the recommendation. The ratio of male to female in this study was 1:20 and the bucks were under moderate activity. If more number of females is to be bred, extra allowances @ 300 g d-' concentrate mixture is recommended. With this level of nutrition, 98% tupping was recorded in goats (Table 6) with 26% twinning. The breeding efficiency of goatswas 123 with kidding per cent and kidding rate of 97 and 121, respectively. The reproduction data depicts that goats were under optimum nutritional state.
Kids
Maximum number of kids were born in October- Novemberand moved to ranges after weaning at 3-months of age. At this period most of the ground vegetation was matured and lignified. Kids diet was constituted by Prosopis cineraria and Zizyphus nummularia. DM, DCP and ME intakes of kids were 85.8, 6.44 g kg-1 W0.75 and 1.22 MJ kg-1 W0"5. These intakes were sufficient for an average daily gain of 55-65 g day-1. Lower growth rate in these kids is due to the presence of tannincontained in tree
leaves. Although lowlevels of natural tannins are beneficial for ruminants because of favourable alteration of rumen fermentation and improvement in the efficiency of microbial protein synthesis (Bhatta et al., 2000, 2001), however in this study the tannin consumption by the goats was very high. The adverse effect of tannin can be annihilatedby feeding kids with polyethylene glycol-6000, either bydrenching or by incorporationinsmall quantity of concentrate mixture (Bhatta et al., 2002a). Sankhyanet al.
(1996) reported 665 g DM intakes in kids grazing on silvipasture with a growth rate of98 g day-1. Grazing of kids on Cenchrus pasture and supplemented with concentrate @ 1.5% of bodyweight,attained growth rate of 96 g day-1 (Shinde et al., 1995). These results suggest that the growth performance of these kids can be improved by supplementation.
Lactation stage
Lactation phase of goats fell between October- November. During this period tree leaves and bushes constitute the major portion of the diet, since ground vegetation is negligible. Higher proportion of twig consumption increasedtheDMIto 4.0% of thebodyweight but reduced the CP content as twigs contain more proportion of lignin and less proportion of CP. Poor CP digestibility of lignified diet resulted in lower DCP intake.
Thus, goats during lactation on such ranges remain on low level of protein intake. Bhatta et al. (2002b) also reported sizeable reduction in CPI oflactating goats during these periods,because of the negative effect oftannin on protein utilization.
Daily nutrient requirement oflactating goat is 72.0 g DCP and 11.2 MJ ME (Ranjhan, 1980). The DCP and ME intake of lactating goats in the present studywas 23.5 g and 22.1 MJ MEday-l. Present study suggests that DCP intake in goats was grossly inadequate, thus necessitating supplementation. Singh (1996) supplemented lactating Kutchi goats with 0, 150, 300 and 450 g day-1concentrate mixture in addition to browsingon range. Total milkyield in the above groups was 94.4, 93.2, 110.0 and 101.1 kg, respectively. Itwas concluded that milkyield significantly increased withthe increasing levels of supplementation up to300 g day-1concentrate indoes.
CONCLUSION
Present studysuggests that goats on semiaridranges are able to meet the nutrient requirement during oestrous and breeding season (males). Since these stages coincide with the maximum availability of forage on ranges. Thus, supplementation is not required. However, during lactation and active growth phase the ground vegetation withers off and tree foliageconstitute the major portion of the diet.The
DM requirement is however met with this foliage. But, since thesetop feeds contain polyphenolic compounds like tannins, adversely affect the protein utilization. Thus, two remedial measures can be adopted, a. supplementation of concentrate mixture, b. ameliorating the effect oftannin by PEG.
The milk yield ofdoes (450 g d-1) andgrowth rate of kids (55-65 gADG)observed in this region areon thelower to moderate level. These production traits could be improved by following the supplementation especially during lactation and growth phase to achieve desired production as wasalsorecommendedinearlierstudies.
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